Cal gets beaten soundly by Washington, 92-71 By Morris Phillips January 16, 2011     After a disappointing loss at Stanford, Washington figured to play better--and a whole lot faster, in keeping with their signature style. The Cal Bears found out first hand Sunday night just how much better and faster the Huskies can play. Cal was roughed up at Haas Pavilion by Washington, 92-71, in a game that wasn’t in doubt after point guard Isaiah Thomas led the Huskies on a surge in which they scored 23 of the final 32 points before halftime. Thomas, a pre-season, first-team All Pac-10 selection, had arguably the best game of his collegiate career with 27 points and 13 assists. “We were just ready to take it out on somebody else,” Thomas said of his team, which had spent the previous two days in the Bay Area stewing over a last second loss to the Cardinal. “They didn’t shoot it very well there, so I figured they would come out ready to fix that,” Cal forward Harper Kamp said. “Whatever they did, worked, and we let them have it.” The nationally televised game was billed as a rematch of last year’s Pac-10 tournament championship game, won by Washington, 79-75, but it played out as a showcase for the Huskies and their fast break offense. Washington won at Berkeley for only the second time in their last 10 visits by shooting 52 percent from the field and keeping the Bears on their heels for the entire 40 minutes. Cal’s performance was clearly a notch below their inspired effort against Washington State on Thursday, and that was highlighted by a 43-27 deficit in the rebounding column. With the Bears unable to corral rebounds, the Huskies got into transition and converted 13 of 29 3-point attempts. Justin Holiday added 23 points for Washington and Matthew Bryan-Amaning contributed 22. Cal was led by Kamp’s 20 points, followed by Allen Crabbe with 16 and Richard Solomon with 14. The Bears managed to make only two 3-pointers and missed 13 of their 30 free throw attempts. “Washington was very good tonight. They made shots and they played extremely hard,” Coach Mike Montgomery--who was honored for his 600th win before the game—said. “I didn’t think we were at our best, so that is a bad combination.” Cal fell to 9-8 on the season and 2-3 in conference play. The Bears travel to Los Angeles next weekend to take on USC and UCLA.

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